If you want to learn about motivation and inspiration, don't spend all that money attending workshops and seminars, just go stand at 14th and Broadway and watch Marvin X at work. He's Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland.
--Ishmael Reed, author, poet,publisher,professor emeritus UC Berkeley
Attorney Walter Riley, Gregory Fields, Blues living legend Sugar Pie De Santo and Dr. M at Academy of da Corner, 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland.
Dr. M, Senior Advisor Gregory Fields at Academy of da Corner.
photo Walter Riley, Esq.
The Academy of da Corner is a multi-purpose project, embracing literacy, literature, mental health, including grief and trauma counseling; a micro loan bank, and essentially a free speech and sacred space zone.
We are all student/teachers. Anyone of us can be simultaneously teacher and student.Usually we are the teacher, but most often we simply listen, letting people vent who otherwise have no one to talk with.
We are their ears, their mirror, so we must be humble, kind and gracious as much as possible, though we will be tried on occasion. But as per the mentally ill, they most especially need a kind word, a smile, and we have made their day. The poor may need a quarter or a dollar for a hamburger.
This is not asking too much, is it? We must be security minded at all times as my life has been threatened several times, but it must be crystal clear we are at Academy of da Corner to educate, assist and help heal the people, not kill the people or beat them down. Thus we must de-escalate any negative encounter. A person may accept a leaflet but throw in down in our face, so let it go. We don't know what state of mind the person may be in, for sure, many are mentally ill (severe, moderate, mild), and more then likely many persons are mind altered, weed, alcohol, Crack, meth, E pills and other.
Some persons are dual diagnosed, suffering drug abuse and mental illness. Most of the time we can look the person in the eyes to determine their state of mind. Eyes are the mirror to the soul!
Academy of da Corner is Marvin X's Street Ministry, associated with the First Poet's Church of the Latter Day Egyptian Revisionists.
"If you want to learn about motivation and inspiration, don't spend all that money going to workshops and seminars, just go stand at 14th and Broadway and watch Marvin X at work.
Academy of da Corner, Marvin X's Street Ministry, 14th and Broadway
Oakland CA
Plato Negro, Jackson, Aristotle Negro
photo Walter Riley, esq.
4/26/11
Marvin X is Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland.
--Ishmael Reed
Comments from da corner
Fuck you, Marvin X, a Negro
I might come by here and throw a molotov cocktail at you!
--a journalist
No writer writes about the street like you.
--Walter Riley
Some people don't like you. I tell them to look at the good you are doing.
--a brother
Fuck the peckerwood, fuck the peckerwood, fuck the peckerwood!
--a brother whispered in MX's ear and kept going
Can you talk to my daughter. She needs help. She's cute, got two babies, but goes out with men and come home with no money for Pampers. What's wrong with that girl?
As the father of two young daughters, I know that being a father is one of the most important jobs any man can have.
My own father left my family when I was two years old. I was raised by a heroic mother and wonderful grandparents who provided the support, discipline and love that helped me get to where I am today, but I still felt the weight of that absence throughout my childhood. It's something that leaves a hole no government can fill. Studies show that children who grow up without their fathers around are more likely to drop out of high school, go to jail, or become teen fathers themselves.
And while no government program can fill the role that fathers play for our children, what we can do is try to support fathers who are willing to step up and fulfill their responsibilities as parents, partners and providers. That's why last year I started a nationwide dialogue on fatherhood to tackle the challenge of father absence head on.
In Chicago, the Department of Health and Human Services held a forum with community leaders, fatherhood experts and everyday dads to discuss the importance of responsible fatherhood support programs. In New Hampshire, Secretary of Education Duncan explored the linkages between father absence and educational attainment in children. In Atlanta, Attorney General Holder spoke with fathers in the criminal justice system about ways local reentry organizations, domestic violence groups and fatherhood programs can join together to support ex-offenders and incarcerated individuals who want to be closer to their families and children.
Now we're taking this to the next level. Tomorrow, I'll make an announcement about the next phase of our efforts to help fathers fulfill their responsibilities as parents -- The President's Fatherhood and Mentoring Initiative. You can learn more at www.fatherhood.gov.
This Father's Day -- I'm thankful for the opportunity to be a dad to two wonderful daughters. And I'm thankful for all the wonderful fathers, grandfathers, uncles, brothers and friends who are doing their best to make a difference in the lives of a child.
Happy Father's Day.
Sincerely, President Barack Obama
Remembering Dad
for Paul Cobb and Henry Winston
Classic black man Race man How can people know more about him than I? should I be mad at him or myself the men tell me how great he was he was dad to me the man who whupped my ass unmercifully who argued with mom til she packed us and left the man who gambled at the Elk's lodge while I listened to Elijah Muhammad on the radio upstairs went to Lowell Jr. High bloods beat down poor white boy when they killed Emmit Til
Dad used to make me go with him to funeral parlors deliver flowers to dead Negroes cold and gray terrifying me maybe he wanted to teach me not to fear death
Dad was known over the Bay known in the clubs where he danced even in his 80s the people have stories about him I've never heard making me sad I didn't know him like this public man social man political man only as father man distant old fashioned from World War I dressed sharp every day starched shirt suit, tie, carnation in lapel shoes shined at Perry's on 7th Ollie and I went with him on Sundays then to church any and every church to promote his florist bizness holy ghost baptist methodist we made the rounds ecumenical for bizness age came to dad starched shirts dirty suits piss stained never saw him sick until those cigars caught up with him in his late 80s in the hospital for a week or two and he was gone the man I didn't know yet knew too well the man I became yet couldn't wear his clothes stand in his shoes no matter what I become I cannot be him only myself what a shame Does prince ever become king, really?
--Marvin X 6/20/10
from Sweet Tea/Dirty Rice, poems, Marvin X, Black Bird Press, late 2010.
and what about all the forgotten women and men in our lives the one night stands the lies we told in the bar, then the hotel suite remembering nothing the next morning by next year the face is forgotten a one night stand on the road to... it was a moment to forget or remember fondly if the lover had a pleasant attitude and didn't suffer sex guilt because it was what it was but it was over in an instant, a good nut and good night please don't call I have a husband and/or wife there are children you cannot visit let it be what it was a moment in the sun the illusion of joy don't get serious at the pleasures of life when they come enjoy the good times and when the bad times come roll with the punches. --Marvin X
from Sweet Tea/Dirty Rice, poems, by Marvin X, Black Bird Press, late 2010.
